CAMPAIGNERS against a controversial waste treatment plant have blasted councillors for agreeing a contract with the firm behind it – before deciding whether to give the scheme planning permission.

The city and county councils yesterday announced they had signed a multi-million-pound deal with Warrington-based Resource Recovery Solutions to handle disposal of Derbyshire's rubbish for the next 27 years. But central to RRS's plans is the building of a multi-million-pound gasification plant in Sinfin Lane, Sinfin, where the waste would be sent, instead of it going to landfill. It could be operational in 2012 or 2013.

The heat-treatment process produces gas which is burned to provide power and turns the waste into ash.

Environmental campaigners and local residents say they fear possible health effects from emissions from the plant.

They argue that because the city council is a signatory to the waste contract, it will be impossible for its planning committee to consider the RRS application impartially when it meets on Thursday.

Simon Bacon, 36, of Swarkestone Drive, is a member of campaign group Spondon and Sinfin Against Incineration (SSAIN). He told the Telegraph: "It feels like it's been pre-decided, like it's a done deal. The councillors on that planning board are on the council and that council has already signed the contract. This increases the risk of bias."

An independent planning expert agreed that signing the contract before dealing with the planning application was bound to leave some people questioning the council's motives.

Jonathan Jenkin, managing director of Derby town planning specialists Planning and Design Practice, said the timing of the announcement was "not too clever".

"The public will put two and two together and wonder what is going on."

He added: "If the planning committee is seen to be fettered by the council's decision to sign the contract then they would not doing their job properly."

A city council spokeswoman said the planning committee was independent and impartial.

She said: "Each elected planning board member has the opportunity to declare any vested interest and then count themselves out of the discussions and decision on the planning application. This is a standard process for any application. Those members who are on cabinet and planning committee have already declared an interest and will not be voting at the planning meeting on this application."

The contract with RRS, a partnership between United Utilities and Interserve, also involves management of eight council household waste recycling centres – in Loscoe, Ilkeston, Newhall, Ashbourne, Derby, Glossop, Chesterfield and Bolsover. Two more are also planned for Northwood, near Matlock, and Clay Cross.

The firm will also provide three waste transfer stations, where household waste will be crushed into blocks before being taken to the Sinfin site, in Alfreton and Derby and – subject to planning permission – Corbriggs near Chesterfield.

The city council said that if planning permission for the gasification plant was refused, the rest of the contract would remain in place.

The spokeswoman said: "Plan B would be to continue with this agreement but without the waste plant.

"Waste transfer and household waste recycling will not be affected by a failed planning application. This means some waste would continue to go to landfill rather than being treated by the waste plant."

She added that this eventually would be expensive because penalties on landfill.

Councillor Mike Carr, city council cabinet member for technology and recycling, said people had no reason to worry about the gasification plant.

He said: "We would not propose plans that would damage people's health."

Councillor John Allsop, county council cabinet member for technology and recycling, added: "We need a treatment plant to deal with rubbish which cannot be recycled or composted."

RRS would not comment on the planning committee claims but said it was "delighted" to have signed the contract.

SSAIN is also raising questions around an application for a second gasification plant in the city. Proposals for the site at the new Derby Commercial Park, off Raynesway, Spondon, have been submitted by Monmouth-based Cyclamax.

But a link between one of Cyclamax's board directors and a separate company that was involved in commissioning a study on the likely environmental impact that would be posed by the plant has emerged, leaving the campaigners again raising issues of impartiality.

The claim is rejected by Cyclamax, which points out that it was a third, independent company that carried out the environmental assessment. Technical director Rick Twomey said they were "completely separate operating companies" and that there was "no relationship other than a normal client/supplier one. There is no conflict of interest".